Invisible Yet Invincible: The Muslim Ummah in Jamaica

Abstract:The splendorous past of the Muslim ummah serves as a source of spiritual inspiration to maintain its Islamic identity in the multicultural and religiously diverse society of Jamaica. Currently, numbering about 4000, the Muslims in Jamaica form 0.15% of the estimated total population of 2,590,400 persons. Approximately 50% of the Muslim population of Jamaica resides in the Kingston Metropolitan Region, where some 43.3% of Jamaica’s population lives. Islam made its first appearance in the home of the Tainos, Jamaica, with the undaunted Andalusian mariners who played the dominant role in navigating Columbus’ discovery voyage through the rough waters of the Atlantic Ocean into the Caribbean Sea in 1494. The seed of Islam sown by the mu’minun from al-Andalus, West Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa and subsequently watered by those from Moghul India have the potential of germinating into a dominant faith by winning the ground inch by inch against all kinds of resistance and inertia. Through intellectual discourse and research work revealing the Islamic heritage of the invincible Maroons, the indomitable African slaves and the determined Muslims from the Subcontinent, the present day multi-ethnic society can once again manifest the Divine Unity of Allah, reminiscing the unity among people during the heydays of the Great Maroons.